California

Latest California Healthline Stories

Community Clinics Shouldered Much of the Vaccine Rollout. Many Haven’t Been Paid.

Federally qualified health centers from California to Michigan are mired in a bureaucratic mess over how they should be paid under Medicaid for each dose of covid vaccine given. In California alone, clinics await reimbursement for at least 1 million shots, causing a “massive cash flow problem.”

New Law Bans Harassment at Vaccination Sites, but Free Speech Concerns Persist

Effective immediately, it will be a misdemeanor in California to harass people on their way to get a covid, or any other, vaccine. But First Amendment experts say the new law violates free speech protections and could face a constitutional battle.

Listen: California Banks on a Bold Treatment: Pay Drug Users to Stop Using

As the pandemic has raged so has the country’s drug epidemic. California is looking to a controversial solution for certain drug users, but despite its effectiveness, critics have scoffed at the idea calling it unethical or a bribe.

Racism a Strong Factor in Black Women’s High Rate of Premature Births, Study Finds

Dr. Paula Braveman, director of UCSF’s Center on Social Disparities in Health, shares her insights on a provocative new study that identifies racism as a decisive factor in the gap in preterm birth rates between Black and white women.